The Internet of Things (IoT) has progressed rapidly over the last few years. While it has always been present in some form or the other since the 1980s, however, it really came to the forefront in the last decade or so.
The applications of IoT in business have grown exponentially from real-time data insights to improving productivity and managing inventory to facilitating automation.
With more and more businesses recognising the benefits up for grabs here, the growth potential of IoT is limitless. According to Fortune Business Insights, the global internet of things market is projected to be worth USD 2465.26 billion in 2029, at a CAGR of 26.4% during the forecast period of 2022-2029.
Applications of IoT in Business
Here are some of the many ways in which business use IoT to improve their efficiency and bring down their costs:
1) Customer Service
Companies are able to provide tailored end-to-end experience to customers based on their usage and behaviour on the website or platform. Once businesses collect and analyze the data based on customer patterns and behaviour, they are able to provide personalised services and offers. This elevates the user experience and also helps companies decide which products to advertise more and which channels to use.
When it comes to improving customer satisfaction and query resolution, chatbots and artificial intelligence (AI) tools have revolutionized the way companies deal with feedback and grievances.
2) Asset and Inventory Management
Coca-cola was the first company to use IoT without even probably realising that they were using this technology since the term didn’t even exist in the 80s.
They were able to hook up the vending machines to the Internet in a way that people could track which beverages were left and whether they were cold or not. This also allowed people to check which vending machines to visit if they wanted a cold beverage to drink.
Nowadays, IoT has transformed the way companies track assets and manage their inventory. For instance, tracking deliveries through IoT devices such as geolocation tags can allow companies to determine when and where products go missing in transit.
3) Cost Efficiency
IoT has brought about astonishing levels of automation, thereby reducing the dependency on manual action which has led to time and cost savings. For instance, if there’s an error in the systems, instead of an IT technician visiting the system physically, IoT sensors and softwares can send real-time data and insights.
Another example would be how important safety measures in a scientific lab such as air quality, temperature and contamination levels can be monitored and corrected by IoT sensors and devices instead of someone having to manually monitor all the elements round the clock.
